This invention relates to novel through-the wash fabric conditioning compositions, their method of manufacture, and freeflowing base beads and aqueous liquid emulsions containing such compositions, which compositions provide softening and antistatic benefits to laundered fabrics without adversely affecting cleaning.
A large number of compositions have been disclosed which impart softening and antistatic properties to laundered fabrics. Generally, these contain cationic compounds, especially quaternary ammonium salts. Such compositions are widely marketed for home use in the form of emulsions which must be added to the washing machine during the rinse cycle. If the emulsions are added during the wash cycle the cationic fabric conditioners may interact with anionic surfactants present in the washing composition so as to render a portion of each of such cationic compound and anionic surfactant unavailable for either cleaning or fabric conditioning.
Another means of providing fabric conditioning which has attained some commercial success is to add the conditioning agent while the clothes are being machine dried.
While fabric conditioning during either the rinse and/or drying cycles can be effective, both methods of conditioning are more inconvenient than a through-the-wash method where the conditioning agent is added with the detergent composition at the initiation of the wash cycle.
Compositions are known which can be added to a washing machine at the start of the wash cycle and effectively provide fabrics with a detergency treatment during the wash cycle and a fabric conditioning treatment during either the rinsing operation or subsequently when the fabrics are heated in a machine dryer. Compositions of this type are known in the art as through-the-wash fabric conditioners. An important advantage of such compositions is that they obviate the need for adding a separate fabric conditioning product in the rinse cycle or in a machine dryer.
Through-the-wash type conditioning agents are well known in the art. European Patent Application No. 0,123,400, published Oct. 31, 1984 discloses fabric conditioning agents comprising salts of specified tertiary amines and carboxylic acids which are utilized in the form of nodules which pass virtually unchanged through the wash and rinse and condition the fabric when heated in a dryer. The nodules are meant to be added to the laundry wash liquor at the beginning of the wash cycle along with a conventional detergent. European Patent Publication No. 0,133,804 published Mar. 6, 1985 discloses detergent compositions containing clay fabric softeners and particles of a complex of a long chain amine and a fatty acid. U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,444 to Ives discloses a fabric cleaning/conditioning composition comprising carboxylic acid salts of a tertiary amine in combination with polyethylene glycol. U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,416 to Crisp et al discloses a textile softening detergent composition comprising a specified class of tertiary amines with a smectite-type clay in a detergent composition such that softening benefits are provided without impairing cleaning performance.
Other recent prior art relating to the field of the invention includes U.S. Pat. No. 4,237,155 to Kardouche which discloses a dryer-added fabric conditioning agent comprised of a carboxylic acid salt of a tertiary amine. British Patent No. 1,514,276 discloses the use of tertiary amine compositions as wash-cycle fabric softeners.
Complexes of specified tertiary amines and carboxylic acids have been previously disclosed as through-the-wash fabric conditioners in U.S. Ser. No. 884,156, filed July 10, 1986. While such complexes are able to provide effective softening and anti-static properties to fabrics in the presence of washing compositions without impairing cleaning, they nevertheless are not always able to provide the desired degree of fabric softening when in the presence of certain commercial surfactants in the wash water. Consequently, there remains a need in the art for a through-the-wash fabric conditioner which can provide fabrics with a high level of softening and anti-stat properties, and which is compatible with a wide variety of commercial laundry detergent compositions.